the perils of

How I wish we weren't living in such an interesting time in human history. A few days ago, the USA and Israel bombed Iran amidst ongoing peace negotiations, and Iran retaliated (as they said they would) by bombing US bases in nearby territories. In the Philippines, we are feeling the ripples of this event -  just last night, President Bongbong Marcos declared a four-day workweek for government offices to ration our oil reserves. In the background, Duterte remains locked up in the International Criminal Court in the Hague, absent from his pre-trial hearings, where past media footage of him proudly announcing his kill counts are being played as official court evidence. Coincidentally, his daughter Inday Sara also recently announced her bid to run for president in 2028. Also, none of the big fish from the flood control scandal have been jailed yet. As if the local political turmoil weren't enough already, we have to deal with impending World War 3. Interesting times indeed. It al...

I just finished my final two weeks of pre-residency at PGH, or the Philippine General Hospital. Along with my 8 batchmates in residency, we spent the past two weeks figuring out the work commute, preparing and giving lectures to each other, shadowing the more senior residents, seeing patients at the Outpatient Department (OPD) and Emergency Room (ER), and of course, practicing for the first years' Christmas party dance.  Yep, that’s me. You're probably wondering how I got here. Well it all started when…   1. Storm between calms The day immediately before  returning to PGH was November 30, the day of the Baha sa Luneta 2.0 protests. We had a 3,000-strong contingent, and more people would have showed up if not for the police. Having learned from their mistakes during the September 21 rally, the police showed up in full force. They messed up the program and caused immense delays. Still, the program pushed on. There was singing, dancing, and a few speeches. At around 10 AM, ...